snowden reminded us. the third possible approach to the threat of terrorism is to try to get local governments to fight the terrorists, but the places that these al qaeda affiliates have sprung up like somalia and yemen are ungovernable. only the u.s. has the technology, missiles and soldiers to disrupt terror plots being hatched in these countries. so you throw the posturing and the politics aside, and you can see that the u.s. is following a reasonable path among the options. if anything, the best policy in the long run would be to shift the struggle over to locals, who can most effectively win a long war against militants on territory that they know much better than outsiders. it would also shift the ideological struggle over to muslims, who can most effectively battle al qaeda in the realm of ideas. the u.s. can help by building up the legitimacy and capacity of these governments in various ways by encouraging reform, providing aid, technical know-how. of course this would be the softest of the three